A Summer Gift to My Readers-A Short Story by Lyn Cote-Part 2

Watermelon Cowboy by Lyn Cote-Part 2

The first part of this story was posted on Friday July 2nd-

"The county's Sweet Corn Festival was the last big summer celebration. Sarah just wasn't in the mood for festivities, but Grandma wouldn't dream of missing the fair. In the evening breeze, Sarah walked slowly beside her grandmother who leaned on her cane. Grandma struggled over the uneven grass to the shady area where the older generation sat on lawn chairs and fanned themselves. Grandmother was greeted cheerfully. With Danny beside her, Sarah snapped open a lawn chair and helped her grandmother settle into it.

"Mom! It's the Watermelon Cowboy!" Danny waved. "Hi!"

"Hello." Tate greeted Danny, then the assembled grandparents.

Sarah noted their warm response to Tate. Obviously, he was a favorite with them.

"Thanks for helping my granddaughter pick out that corn and those melons." Martha held onto his hand. "Nobody can out-do Quint melons."

"They were great!" Danny bounced up and down.

Tate offered Danny his hand. Danny took it, but didn't let go. Tate grinned down at the boy. "In the mood to eat some more?"

"No, I want cotton candy!"

Tate chuckled along with the grandparents. "Well, Sarah Jane, I guess we better get this boy some cotton candy."

"That's all right," Sarah stammered. "You don't need to bother."

"No, bother." He began walking away. Since Danny still happily gripped Tate's big hand, Sarah hurried to keep up.

Soon Danny was pulling at a pink wand of cotton candy. Tate lounged beside her. Sarah decided to speak to Tate now. Danny, busy watching the nearby musical merry-go-round, wouldn't overhear them.

She might make a fool of herself, but she didn't want to mislead Tate. She'd been burned too bad.... "Tate, this has nothing to do with you, but I'm not looking for…." She couldn't think of how to say she wasn't interested in romance or more importantly, didn't want people to presume she might be interested in Tate.

"I heard," Tate said softly, "that your marriage didn't turn out the way you wanted."

She frowned. "I'd hoped to avoid small-town gossip."

"This isn't gossip, just sharing."

Feeling hurt, she folded her arms in front of her. "How would you like it if people were talking about you?"

"If the people talking are just concerned, what's wrong with that?"

She looked up into his eyes.

Tate gazed at her searchingly. "Why did you come to my stand to buy your corn and melons?"

"What?"

"You came to my produce stand because everyone knows Quints only sell the best. If people didn't talk to each other, how would everyone know that?"

She shrugged. "I suppose they just have to find out for themselves."

He smiled sadly. "Finding things out by yourself can be the hardest way to learn something ."

The truth of what he said made her wince. She'd found out the hard way about her husband. Maybe if she'd met him here, where people had shared about him, she might have saved herself all the pain. Embarrassed, she avoided Tate's gaze.

Danny took Tate's hand and looked up. "They're dancing! My mom likes to dance!"

"Does she?"

Before she could protest, she found herself in Tate's arms dancing to the "Tennessee Waltz" on the fair's nearby open-air, dance floor. She felt breathless, held so close against him. Finally she murmured, "So the Quints have the best melons? What would people share about the Quints themselves?"

"I think you already know the answer to that."

Sarah didn't know how to reply. "Oh?" was all she could manage.

"Quints aren't afraid to 'plug' our melons. We are honest...." Tate's face crinkled into a killer smile. "About melons and everything else."

The way he said the words made her blush like a teen-aged girl.

They danced over to where Danny watched. "A bunch of us always go to the fall rodeo up in Fort Madison. Maybe Danny and you would like to go along?" She read honest interest in Tate's eyes.

Something hard and hurting deep inside Sarah suddenly relaxed. She was among friends now.

"A rodeo!" Danny whooped, "Wow!"

Sarah gazed into Tate's clear, direct eyes. "Is it a genuine rodeo?"

He brushed back her bangs. "Why, ma'am, even a Watermelon Cowboy knows the real thing when he sees it."

Hope you all enjoyed this summer read. Invite your friends to drop by and read it. Can anyone guess what my favorite food is? GRIN

2010 Copyright Lyn Cote

A Summer Gift to My Readers-A Short Story by Lyn Cote-Part 1

WATERMELON COWBOY

Short Story by Lyn Cote

(Copyright 2010 Lyn Cote)

"Hi, are you a cowboy?" Danny asked.

Sarah stood behind her freckled, about-to-enter-kindergarten son. Affectionately she finger-combed his red curls. On the way home from her new job and Danny's new daycare, they'd stopped at the roadside produce stand.

"Well…" The tall, good-looking man in denim eased out of his lawn chair, then stood up by the weather-beaten stand. "Do you think a watermelon needs roping?"

"But you got on a cowboy hat." Danny pointed to the battered straw hat shaped like a Stetson the man wore.

"No, this is my melon hat. Always wear it when I work the melon patch and this stand."

"Oh." Danny's voice showed his disappointment.

Sarah sighed inwardly. She knew all about the kind of disappointment that comes when appearances were deceiving. Her six-year marriage to Danny's father had been an unfolding story of disillusionment. The only things genuine she'd gotten out of the marriage were debt and Danny.

"What can I get for you, ma'am?" the Watermelon Cowboy asked.

As Sarah read aloud her grandmother's shopping list, perspiration trickled down her back from the late summer heat. How did the cowboy look so cool?

He slapped open a paper bag. "Why don't you pick out the ears of corn you want?"

"Right." She'd lived so long on generic macaroni and cheese she'd forgotten what it was like to pick out fresh produce. She walked to the table heaped with sweet corn. A sign over it said, "Fresh picked today." Promises, promises, she said to herself.

She stripped down a piece of green husk from a plump ear of corn. Performing the test for freshness she'd learned years ago during summer visits at her grandmother's, she pressed her thumbnail into one pearl-sized, pale yellow kernel. Creamy corn juice spurted out. "Fresh," she murmured in approval.

"That's what the sign says." The cowboy grinned.

Assessing him, she dropped it in the bag he held.

"Can I do that?" Danny asked.

"Sure can." The man swung Danny up to sit on the edge of the table and showed him how to test the corn. "You're Sarah Jane, Martha McDowell's family, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am." Sarah sighed. Small town gossip. She'd been afraid people here might talk behind her back. She watched her son test each ear and drop it into the bag.

The man leaned against the table and gave her a slow smile. "I'm Tate, Jessie Quint's grandson."

Sarah smiled back. She'd met Tate's grandmother again just the other day.

"This is fun!" Danny squirted the last ear of corn. "What's next, Mom?"

"A muskmelon."

Danny grimaced. "A mush melon. That don't sound good!"

Tate chuckled. "They're kind of ugly on the outside, but they sure taste good." He bent down and opened a cooler. "Want a sample?" He held out two orangy chunks on toothpicks to them.

He went on, "I heard you came to live with Martha and help her out. We're glad. She didn't want to leave her home yet."

She nodded, then swallowed the sweet melon. "It's my grandmother who's doing me a favor." She couldn't hold back the regret in her voice. Living with her grandmother would give her a chance to pay off debts her ex had left behind in both their names.

Danny warily licked his melon chunk, then shoved it into his mouth. "Yummy!"

Tate showed Danny how to shake a ripe muskmelon to hear the seeds

rattle. "That's how you know it's a good one, ready to chill and eat."

"Right!" Danny formed his fingers into the "OK" sign.

"Next?" Tate asked.

"Watermelon," Sarah said, glancing away, too aware of the man's easy charm.

Tate escorted them over to the shaded pile of watermelons.

"Why don't you just pick one out for me?" Sarah said.

"No, you pick out one out and I'll 'plug' it for you." Tate grinned down at Danny who had perched on the largest melon.

"No one 'plugs' watermelons any more," she objected warily. Was he trying to impress her?

He crossed his arms casually over his chest. "I do. Only sure way to know."

She pointed at a green and yellow-striped melon. He pulled out a knife, cut a triangle-shaped plug and handed it to her. She bit into the sweet red melon, then caught the sugary juice as it trickled down her chin. She couldn't help it; she giggled.

"I want some!" Danny declared.

Tate cut and handed him a second plug.

"We'll take that one." Sarah smiled shyly, her eyes lowered.

"Just a few days to the Sweet Corn Festival. You planning on going?" Tate asked as he carried the melon to her car's trunk.

It was a simple question, but Sarah wondered if a possible invitation was close behind it. She'd warmed to this friendly Watermelon Cowboy, but she hoped he hadn't mistaken her smiles as flirtatious. Romance was the last thing on her mind. "Maybe." With a polite wave, she drove away."

Drop by Tuesday July 6th to read the romantic ending!

Coming up Friday July 2nd --Lyn's Summer Gift to Readers

Drop by Friday for something a bit special for my readers. Here's a hint!
Any guesses?

Author Lyn Cote's Mom's Nameless Summer Recipe

I am a foodie and I married a foodie and we raised two foodies. My son is engaged to be married and he and his fiance are coming up to visit us at the lake this coming weekend. So I asked him what her favorite foods were so I would make what she liked. His reply; "She doesn't really have any favorites."

I'm afraid that there was a very pregnant pause. The thought that someone didn't have a favorite food dumbfounded me.

My favorite food is of course watermelon. Always has been, always will be. If you want a chunk of watermelon, my refrigerator is the place to go. We eat at least 1 a week. My brother and I used to go through 2 a week as kids!

For every celebration, our family has favorite foods. Also for every season we have favorite foods.

But my family was outclassed by my husband's clan.

I remember when I married my dh that I was a bit astounded that his family celebrated each birthday with not one, but two birthday cakes and with one or two kinds of ice cream. And then I figured out why!

The Cote family motto is "I'll have a little bit of each." I've threatened to cross stitch that and hang it on the wall of --where else?--our kitchen!

Well, I will love my new daughter-in-law even if she isn't a foodie. But she is marrying a Cote, so I think she'll have to get used to us foodies!

So here's one of my favorite summer desserts which was an original recipe by my mom. Therefore it doesn't have a fancy title. Maybe you'll post a suggested title for me.

Ingredients:
2 small packages of orange JELLO
1-2 cups vanilla ice cream
1/2 to 1 pint of fresh washed blueberries
1/2 cantaloupe, cubed or balled

Prepare JELLO according to package directions. Then while still warm, stir in ice cream, then berries, then melon. Chill and serve. If served as salad, plain. If served as dessert, top with whipped cream.

This is beautiful to the eye, takes advantage of some of the in season summer fruits and it's delicious.

So what should we call it? I need a name for it.